1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and, in particular, to a plasma display apparatus having a heat dissipating structure for a driver integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many display devices available today. One such display device is a plasma display device. It is well known that a plasma display apparatus uses plasma generated by gas discharge to produce an image on a plasma display panel (PDP). In the plasma display apparatus, electrodes printed on the PDP are connected electrically to a driving circuit, and a driver integrated circuit (IC) provides the electrodes with an address voltage in accordance with signals controlled by the driving circuit.
Exemplary structures using a driver IC to provide the voltage are a chip on board (COB), in which the driver IC is installed on a printed circuit board (PCB), and a chip on film (COF), in which the driver IC is installed on a film composing a flexible printed circuit (FPC). Other exemplary structures used to provide the voltage are a tape carrier package (TCP) in which the driver IC is packaged in a tape shape, and a chip on glass (COG), in which the driver IC is installed directly on the glass substrate of the PDP.
The COG-type has an advantage of reducing the size of the PDP because the driver IC is on a glass substrate of the PDP and electrically connects the electrodes formed on the glass substrate to the terminals of the FPC.
However, the COG-type driver IC produces a large amount of heat. This is partially due to gas discharge occurring at least 8 times in 1/60 second (1 TV field) which generates more than 256 gradations in the PDP. As a result, the heat may cause breakdown of the driver IC and degradation in the picture quality due to image sticking resulting from phosphor degradation by the heat.